Angel in Heaven
by Amelia Lovett
Summary: Angelina Thomas has lived in France her whole life with her parents, Dean Thomas and Violante Poitiers, and brother Bertie. When her father gets a job in the Ministry of Magic in England, she is forced to move to London. That means transferring to Hogwarts, right at the moment of the Interschool Quidditch cup, a new tournament between 8 schools. Friendship and romance ensue.
1. This Is It

_This is it,_ I thought. I was standing at the Kings Cross' Station with my parents. Only a few months ago I wouldn't even have dreamt about moving, but then my dad decided to accept his new job at the Ministry Of Magic in England, and we suddenly _had_ to.

London was much different from Avignon. I didn't know anyone here. My father seemed to know a lot of people here though. Including the Potters, the Weasleys, the Finnigans... After the second Wizarding War they hadn't had much contact, but they still got along. He had told me loads of stories about the War when I was younger and I'd always been fascinated by the things he had achieved when he was that age.

I sighed. I pulled my trunk forwards while walking to my parents, who, to my great pleasure, just hugged me and wished me luck. No sticking on me until the train was finally leaving, no crying and most importantly, no awkward goodbyes. This was going better than I expected. Who _would've _expected that Violante Poitiers and Dean Thomas, the most concerned parents _ever_, would let me, Angelina Thomas, go so quickly? Well, I didn't. But I was fine with it. I really was.

I entered the train and looked around for an empty compartment, when suddenly someone put a hand on my shoulder. I snapped around and saw my mum and dad, both looking really uncomfortable.

"You didn't think we'd let you go so easily, Angie?" my dad said.

I hugged my parents very tightly and glanced at my mother's face. It was red and blotchy and out of her eyes came salty tears that ran over her face.

_"_Mum, why are you crying_?"_ I asked.

She didn't answer right away, but when she did, she started weeping even harder.  
_"_Isn't it obvious_?"_ she answered with a thick, French accent, ".. Dean?"  
She beckoned my dad, who was looking with huge interest at a ferret in one of the cages.

She whispered something in his ear and immediately my dad began talking: "Your mother and I just don't want to lose you, dear."

I rolled my eyes. Parents. "Mum, dad, don't you trust me?" I jokingly said.

"We do", my dad answered, his face somewhat saying differently.

"You better don't. Who knows, I could join this rebellious group who hate a certain toad-faced teacher and fight the new school decrees."

Right at that moment the conductor blew his whistle and my parents left the train. I opened a random compartment and sat on one of the very comfortable benches. Only a few minutes after that, someone entered my compartment, followed by a few others.  
"Excuse me, can we sit here? Everywhere else is full", the girl asked. I nodded and she took the seat in front of me.

"I'm Rose Weasley by the way. And they are Albus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Laura Finnigan and Dominique Weasley."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Angelina Thomas."

Suddenly the girl named Laura gasped and came to sit next to me.  
Turning to me, she said very excitedly: "_Thomas_? I know you! You're my father's best friend's daughter!"

I was a bit confused, but I answered: "Oh, great. I've never actually heard of you... But I think my dad just doesn't really talk that often about anyone of his old friends' family. Or he just doesn't keep up, it could be that."

"It's okay. I heard you lived in France your entire life? So did you go to Beauxbatons?" she asked me.

Before I could answer a very loud cry could be heard in the corridor. Only seconds later a tall, black-haired guy entered the compartment with a broad grin on his face.

"Broken another girl's heart, ave you?" Scorpius, the blond guy asked. I figured it was more a rhetorical question, seeing the expression on his face.

"I haven't broken her heart. She'll get over it", the guy answered irritably, rolling his hazel eyes.

He sat down next to Dominique, who found that the perfect moment to open her mouth and let her vocal cords work: "James, why would you even ask her out if you'd just break up after two weeks? It makes no sense at all."

"Talk about yourself", James mumbled.

He looked around the compartment and then suddenly rested his eyes on me. "So... who are you if I may ask?" he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "I've never seen an angel like you at Hogwarts," he continued before ruffling his hair.

I must say that I felt really flattered, though I was a bit taken aback... "I'm...", I hesitated fishily, "I'm Angelina Thomas."

"See, there's an angel in your name!" he said and winked at me. Woah there.

Albus Potter, the guy with the glasses and the same untidy hair as James rolled his eyes. Slightly irritated he told him to shut up and added: "What a nice welcome... Give her some space, she just got here and you're already hitting on her. "

James, obviously annoyed, snapped: "All right, mister goody-two-shoes, I'm not hitting on her!"

Albus laughed. Apparently very amused, he said: "You're not? Like every single girl you've just met? Because, you know, I think every single member of your fan club could probably confirm this, to their great displeasure. They've even made buttons."

"Just shut up! ..."

Before James could finish his sentence, Laura interrupted him: "So... _did_ you go to Beauxbatons?"

I was quite relieved that she'd interrupted him, to be honest.  
"Yeah... I never quite understood why my parents never left France before. Beauxbatons is… quite different", I answered. I wasn't_ going_ to miss it, I already did.

Scorpius suddenly realised something, judging by the look on his face. "Wait, speaking of uniforms, what house are you actually sorted in?"

_The_ question. I knew it would come eventually.

"Er.. Gryffindor", I said with a smile.

"Gryffindor. Another one? Tsk tsk..." Scorpius jokingly said, his eyebrows raised in a comical figure.

"And how many O.W.L.s have you got, and for which subjects?" Rose asked.

"We don't take our O.W.L.s in Beauxbatons until the end of our sixth year, so I guess... none."

"But then, how do you know which classes you can attend this year?" she blurted out, looking utterly shocked. I said that Madame Maxime sent a letter to the headmistress, in which she explained everything about the O.W.L.s and the subjects I scored well at.

Dominique also did her contribution, after flipping her hair to the other side of her neck: "_Sooo_... Do you have a boyfriend?"

I smiled at her eager look. "What is this? An interrogation?" I said with a fake look of irritation. I stood up to go and use the loo, and when I got out of the compartment, I stuck my head through the door and said: "But yes, I do. Excuse me, I have to pee."

**A/N: Whew! I had this WIP laying around for quite some time, so I thought, why not re-upload it? I do hope you guys like it! If you have constructive criticism or just some comments or tips or anything like that, feel free to leave a review and make this author squeal and lick your face or something. **_**I'll give you cookies.**_

**See you next update! **


	2. Castles and Quidditch

**A/N: Here we are again! I** **know, 2 chapters in a day... But I felt like it! I've written a bit ahead, so :) Chapters of this story are going to be fairly short, maybe in the 2000-4000 word range, since I want this to be a bit of a light story. Thanks to bluemuffin22 for the kind review and thank you to the followers!  
Feel free to leave a review! **

* * *

Hogwarts was _huge_. I couldn't believe I was going to spend two years here. A sparkling palace, blue silk uniforms, ridiculously glamorous teachers, a very magical garden (_unfortunately, with a lot of gnomes_) … All these things were the things I'd gotten used to. Now all I could see was an enormous castle with aged stones and a lot of towers. The walls had a few cracks, but the towers seemed very new. That was of course due to the Battle of Hogwarts. They had to rebuild almost the whole castle, including the bridge.

I found myself staring up at the castle for a while, when suddenly I had the urge to steal someone's broom and fly back to France. I wasn't really good with changes.

I couldn't do that, unfortunately. So I decided to go to the enormous front door and enter it.

Whilst entering the castle, my eyes fell on a particularly strange scene. The harnesses in the entrance hall were singing. But another voice was ringing over it. It came from the ghost-like little "person" with an orange hat and a purple bowtie. While the harnesses sang "_Let another year begin, full with glory. Let your cleverness expand, just once more_", Peeves laughed hysterically while pouring oil in the harness' 'mouth'. Peeves was a poltergeist. I had read a piece about him in _my dad's old diary_. He was known to make complete havoc and to prank students and teachers and I knew that my dad had been one of his victims when he went to school here.

The first thing I noticed when I came into the Great Hall, was the beautiful ceiling. I knew that it was enchanted, because I had nearly read _Hogwarts: A History_ a dozen times. Today, the ceiling reflected the gloomy sky, with dark clouds full of heavy rain. It was almost depressing if it weren't Hogwarts we were talking about. I eyed the hall apprehensively and walked forwards to find the Gryffindor table.  
I took a seat next to Laura, who was talking animatedly with Dominique about an article in the new Witch Weekly issue. I lowered a little to see the cover, which reminded me of Rumeur, a French magazine that spoke for itself. Rumour. Oh yes, there were loads of rumours in that darn scrap of paper. One time it even gave my mum problems at work. They described her as an auror and even made up a whole affair. My parents were furious. I had never seen Dean Thomas in such a rage, he would always laugh things away. But that was really serious and the magazine was banned from France. Or at least the magical world.

My flashback was interrupted by Dominique's squeal: "He is so handsome! The only reason I watch the Chudley Cannons' games, is because of him! Oh, God! Why doesn't he already take me on a broom ride? He's supposed to ditch his girlfriend and kiss me under the mistletoe!"

"Oh my gosh, Dom! The mistletoe? Are you that desperate?" Laura laughed. She obviously knew how to choose the right words, because Dominique immediately turned tomato-red.

Well, except then a tomato with long blonde hair and a not-so-round face.

Or…whatever.

Bending over to see the article, I saw a very familiar face beaming at me. I snorted, which caused the two girls to look at me, startled.

"What?" Laura asked, confusedly looking up.  
"I kind of know him", I replied sheepishly, not wanting to look at her.

I shouldn't had said that.

"You know him?! You know Thomas Freaking Broderick?!" Dominique blurted out, her jaw dropping.

And if I knew him. Tom Broderick, chaser of the Chudley Cannons, was practically family.

"For over six years now. It's not a big deal though."

"But...but how?" Dominique demanded, looking appalled.

"He's my cousin Yvette's boyfriend", I chuckled. Their faces were worth thousands of galleons if I'd take a photo of them. "Fiancé after tonight. If his little impossible plan works."

"Whose plan?" I heard a soft voice saying behind me. James came to sit next to me and Rose, coming from the Entrance Hall, and a tall, somewhat toned guy with dark red hair joined too. I started a small conversation with Rose, but there wasn't much time to talk, as suddenly everyone went quiet.

I rose my head up to the staff table, but saw no signs of movement. All of the teachers were looking straight forward, a few of them with a warm smile on their face. Four seats were empty. One of course due to the tiny man standing next to a three-legged stool with an old, patched hat on it. Everyone stared at the entrance of the hall and when I turned my head, a large man with a beard and a moleskin coat entered, followed by a huge group of what looked like first-years, all very tense and nervous. One girl even seemed on the verge of tears. And their nerves didn't really go away by the look of it, because everyone stared at them. The bearded man, of whom I know was Hagrid, gamekeeper of Hogwarts and the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, sat down at the staff table, causing a few goblets to fall and the table to shake madly.

The first-years lined up and the little man placed a three-legged stool with an old, patched hat on it. Everyone was looking at it like it was the most normal thing in the world. As for me, I didn't know whether to think of it as a normal thing, or a strange one. I had my try in August. It was pretty nerve-racking. It took the hat nearly five minutes before he decided to put me in Gryffindor. The Headmistress, an lovable woman called professor Sprout, told me that this was normal for the time of the year. Usually, the hat then just awoke after a two-month slumber.

A tear near the brim opened and you could see a 'mouth' form.  
The first-years looked quite scared and leapt when the hat began to sing:

_Thousand years or more ago,__  
__I sung no notes__  
__I was owned by a wizard,__  
__known to be bold,__  
__yet not old.__  
__This young gal soon met__  
__two young ladies and a young man,__  
__a friendship was born__  
__and made them four unstoppable.__  
__He himself was brave, known under the name__  
__Godric Gryffindor.__  
__The first young lady__  
__with the hair of a raven,__  
__called Rowena Ravenclaw,__  
__was clever, smart, mostly known__  
__to be wise.__  
__The other young man,__  
__Salazar Slytherin,__  
__known to be sly and cunning,__  
__had eyes like ice.__  
__And finally the other lady,__  
__listening to the name__  
__Helga Hufflepuff.__  
__Helga was nor wise,__  
__nor brave,__  
__nor cunning,__  
__but had the ability__  
__to aid either one,__  
__when in need of help.__  
__As the four of them united __  
__and longed to teach younglings__  
__their abilities,__  
__they started a school,__  
__for witchcraft and wizardry,__  
__that has nowadays known__  
__great wars entirely of their own.__  
__But there wasn't always concord.__  
__Salazar Slytherin, wanting to teach__  
__all whom he found to measure up to__  
__his standards,__  
__younglings with clear blood,__  
__and others not, departed one day in discord__  
__with his fellow founders._

After the song the tiny man beckoned a first year called Anne Gilderson and the little girl took place on the stool. He placed the hat gently on the girl's head and only seconds later it screamed: "Ravenclaw!"

With that, a broad smile appeared on the man's face.

The next person to be sorted was a boy. It took the hat only a second to scream: "Hufflepuff!"  
It kept going on and on and after a few first year were sorted, I wasn't even listening anymore.

Rose started to whisper to me in disbelief: "Bloody hell! Why are aunt Ginny and the head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports here?"

I glanced at the staff table and saw a red-haired woman, seated next to a blond, muscular man.  
"What are mum and dad not telling us?" James whispered furiously, "Why wouldn't they even inform their own family?"

Our conversation was –again- cut off. The sorting was finished and the Great Hall burst out in applause. The headmistress stood up and started to speak: "Welcome again to Hogwarts! Now that everyone is sorted I'd like to make a few announcements. As every year I have to remind you that entering the Forbidden Forest is strictly prohibited. The forest is the house of many creatures from not even your worst nightmares and I can assure you that they are nothing like the ones you see in your schoolbooks. Secondly, I would like to say that the Inter House Quidditch Cup will be cancelled this year..."

_What?  
_  
Half of the great hall leapt to his feet, screaming and cussing. The teachers tried to calm everyone down, but alas. As expected, it didn't quite work in the way they wanted it to work.  
Suddenly the headmistress screamed for silence and everyone sat back down and glared at her, still very angry.

"Can I finish now? _Honestly_. What I meant to say, the Inter House Quidditch Cup will be cancelled this year. But I think it would be better to let our own head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, Cormac McLaggen explain our new event of the year", professor Sprout said sturdily.

The man swaggered forwards with a large, cheeky smile on his face. To be honest, the guy gave me the creeps. I immediately got a feeling of great dislike towards him.  
The more words came out of his mouth, the more everyone started to whisper excitedly: "As your amazing headmistress, and may a say, sumptuous woman has already said, there will be no Inter House Quidditch cup", I saw the redhead aunt of Rose roll her eyes irritably while scribbling on a scroll of parchment, "However, the ministry has decided to organise an Inter School Quidditch Cup right here at Hogwarts. Which means that students and teachers of foreign schools will soon arrive. Since it's an Inter School Cup, Hogwarts will need only one team. We will therefore have try-outs next Friday the ninth of September respectively. Anyone who wants to join the team will have to be there, we won't make any exceptions."

He paused a bit, looking at the tables of excited students, while professor Sprout tapped the crystal glass in front of her on the staff table with her wand. The hall went silent at once.

"There will be seven other schools competing too. Not only Hogwarts, but also Durmstrang Institute from North Europe, our good friends from Magiludus in Belgium, Mahoutokoro from Japan and the girls from Salem Witches' Institute in America. And Wellington Academy from New-Zealand, Escola Magia from Brasilia and Beauxbatons from France-", my stomach made an excited jolt, "will join the party as well. All of the competing teams will arrive the twenty-first of September with their coaches."

After these words -ended with an _annoying_ grin-, he sat back down. Almost immediately after that the headmistress clapped and the golden plates on the tables covered themselves with the most delicious food I had ever seen: roast beef, all sorts of vegetables, pumpkin pasties, mashed potatoes and even mint humbugs. There were also huge plates with chicken wings and different types of pasta. I took a bit of everything and began filling my stomach, which was feeling happier and happier, like me. The thought that I would see my friends earlier than the next holiday, made me inwardly scream of joy.

And then there was Quidditch, one of my favourite pastimes. I had learned it from my brother Bertie when I was younger. Every summer evening he would take me outside and play Quidditch with me. Dad would occasionally join in the game too, as a chaser, and when my family was once again packed together, my only magical cousin and my mother would try too. Just try. But Bertie was a sensitive subject to talk about. I hadn't had contact with him for over four years.  
I snapped out of my thoughts, being fully aware that it wasn't one of those beautiful summer evenings anymore.

The Great Hall was filled with excited talk and the clattering of cutlery, for what seemed like hours. When the stars were already shining brightly above our heads, professor Sprout rose from her seat to make a final, very short speech. "I suppose our stomachs are all happily filled, so chop chop, off to bed now! Prefects, you know what to do."  
Rose stood up so quickly she accidently knocked over her now empty goblet and paced over to the doors leading to the entrance hall, to guide first-years to the Gryffindor tower.

Didn't I tell you? She was a Prefect. She forgot she was until fifteen minutes after the departure of the train.

The others arose too, heading to the doors and I followed suit. We went to the Grand Staircases, climbed a few stairs tiredly, dragging our feet. The people on the portraits were pointing at the first-years and whispered things in the ears of other figures, who nodded and laughed. We went into a corridor and stopped at the end, where a portrait of a sizeable woman in a pink silk dress hung. She watched us expectantly and as Rose said the password -"Copper Kettles"-, the portrait swung open and revealed a round opening. One by one the Gryffindors entered.

The Gryffindor common room completely overwhelmed me: it was a circular room, completely in the house's colours, with a marble fireplace filled with a warm fire, a few armchairs and couches, a beautiful carpet, and on the walls the Gryffindor banners.

Nearly everyone went straight to bed, the boys disappeared through the stairs on the left, the girls on the right. Laura –popping out of nowhere- led me to the door that said 'sixth-years' and we entered the room, in which a girl sat on one of the four-poster beds. She was painting her nails with a bored look. She merely looked up when we came in. I saw my trunk and went to the bed where it stood. On my trunk lay a Gryffindor scarf, neatly folded. I immediately grabbed my pyjamas and changed. Rose, Dominique, Laura and a girl with strawberry blonde hair did the same, but the girl on the bed still remained motionless, now putting glitter on her nails. I shoved under the red covers of my bed and as I thought about my new school, I, Angelina Thomas, immediately fell asleep.


	3. Of Libraries and Breakfast

**_A/N: Yay! Another chapter! Sorry, it's been a while, but I figured since I had posted 2 chapters in one day... School has started again after a way too short Easter break, and I have a lot of work, so I'll say this beforehand: I will update not so frequently, with a lot of time inbetween. Enjoy! R&R if you will :)_**

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I woke up beaming the next day. I didn't know what, but something had made me downright cheerful and completing the last two years of school in Hogwarts actually sounded rather nice. There was a tiny ray of light coming out of the curtained window and I bent over my bed to grab my watch. It said _07:43 A.M.  
_I peered around the room, slightly squinting my eyes to find three out of the four other girls still snoring lightly in their beds. Rose's bed however was empty.

Gently sliding out of my four-poster bed, I headed to the bathroom to refresh myself a bit, and lazily put my hair in a loose braid. When I'd got dressed, I tiptoed out of the dormitory into the circular common room which was not really empty; a couple of people, as in James, Fred and their mates, were snoring loudly on the benches, having had a party the day before. As I quietly exited through the portrait hole, suppressing a yawn, I tried to remember the way to the Great Hall.

_Oh, c'mon Angelina Thomas. You remember. THINK!_

Struggling with my amnesia, I figured I might as well walk to the end of the corridor, so I led myself away from the common room.

_Right._

The Great Hall was about empty. Only a few students were sitting at the tables, having whispered conversations or reading a book. I glanced around. In a few seconds I had spotte large, familiar bush of red hair at the Gryffindor table.

"You're an early-bird", Rose said in a matter-of-factly voice.

"You too, I see", I answered, suppressing another yawn as I sat down in front of her.

"Oh, well, I have a silly reason to be up so early. For four years already," Rose sighed, "but I'm not going to bore you with my story."

"You won't bore me", I said as I checked my watch, "It's 8:00 A.M. on a Saturday morning. It's not like I have something else to do."

Rose heaved a sigh again. "You got me there... I wake up early every morning to go to the library. And then I sneak back into the dormitory and 'wake up' with the girls. Pathetic, isn't it?" she told me. She had a look on her face like she thought that she was a revolting human being.

I frowned. "I don't think it is. But... why don't you want them to know you like going to the library? It's not that there's something wrong with that. Is it?"

Rose nodded guiltily. "Well, I guess you're right. It's just that most of my cousins and friends aren't really... fond of libraries. They prefer to hang out outside or snog their boyfriends or girlfriends. Especially James, Fred and Dom. They're the worst."

"Family. Always making someone feel left out. Trust me. I know how you feel" , I admitted.

"Care to share your story?"

"I'll let you know if I finally know the full story myself, because now I honestly have no clue about what went wrong in my family or whatsoever", I answered, knowing that it sounded a bit vague, so I added another part to my sentence: "In short, I haven't seen my brother for four years, my grand-parents have turned their back on us and my nicest cousin lives happily ever after with her famous fiancé."

"Yeah, the last one sounds like a big bummer", Rose laughed, hoisting up her eyebrows.

We spent the rest of our breakfast chatting small talk and after the meal we went to the library together. The library was empty as ever and madam Pince didn't even bother to tell the only students there to lower their voices. But it came from both sides. The few students around didn't even bother to whisper either. Thus, it was getting fairly noisy in the huge hall full of mahogany bookcases, causing madam Pince to jump out of her sleepy trance and to usher anyone who made a sound, louder than a whisper, out.

By the time we were back in the dormitory, we had had quite a laugh, due to the fact that madam Pince kept screaming about when others were chatting a little louder than was permitted and other people were still finishing breakfast while bent over a huge book.

Rose and me crept into the already dim lit room and silently laid down in our four-poster beds. We both leapt when Laura briskly drew open her curtains and sat up, her feet dangling over her bedside. Her eyes were nothing more than little splits and her hair looked as though she'd put a finger in an outlet. And that wasn't even possible at Hogwarts.

Laura rubbed her eyes sleepily as we stared at her, still in shock. She let her arms fall softly on her lap and glared back. "God, I must look like a real night troll."

"Earth to Rose and Angelina", she added while waving frantically as though we were mad cows.

Laura hopped off the bed and took over the bathroom. "So... what's for breakfast?" she asked when she closed the door.

"Are the guys already awake?" asked Dominique while reading _Witch Weekly _over lunch.

"By now? Probably," Rose answered, "although I think they've been faking for at least three hours. I bet they're already making up a prank for the start of the year."

"Ouch, Rosie. That hurts. Is our dear cousin already thinking about putting us in detention?" sounded a voice from behind our backs. Fred joined us, Albus and Scorpius coming along.

Rose glared at the three boys with a defiant look, her arms crossed across her chest. "So, I assume you're telling me you don't have some stupid joke ready?" she said with an almost hysterical look if it wasn't for her hard eyes. I had only seen one person throw that look in my whole life. My muggle neighbour in Avignon was a specialist. Really. I'm not even kidding.

Fred simply smirked and filled his plate. When Rose didn't stop glaring, he looked up. "Our prank's already set. We just can't find James. He's hiding for his fan club", he added, amused.

"His fan club. _Fan club._ He has a _fan club!_ HA! I knew it!" Laura laughed, poking Dominique. She immediately answered the poke with a harder one in Laura's stomach. "Stop being so obnoxious!" squealed Dominique in between her laughing.

A horde of girls walked past the table and I noticed that they were not oblivious to the three boys sitting with us. I even saw a few winking at Fred and softly batting their eyelashes. A fact that Fred wasn't oblivious to either. He stood up and followed the girls, putting his arms around two of the girls' waists.

Rose rolled her eyes. "He enjoys this too much", she exclaimed when he was out of sight.

"How would you act when your whole year would want to shag you? I think Fred's taking his rights", Scorpius said after an awkward silence, his eyes meeting Rose's.

"I wouldn't.. I..." she stuttered, her ears becoming as red as her hair.

"The thing is, Rose, you _do_ get attention. But you're in denial", Albus added with a meaningful look and a chuckle, or at least, that's how I interpreted it.

I knitted my eyebrows together and shot a glance at Laura's face, who answered it. She nodded to Rose and Scorpius. Rose was looking extremely flustered and Scorpius' face echoed hers.

_Oh_.

So they were like Alexandre and Helène, two of my mum's best friends at Beauxbatons. An I-fancy-you-do-you-fancy-me-no-seriously-do-you-no -uh-no-not-at-all-but-I-do-actually-romance. That's a classic romcom _–as the muggles would call it-_ plot. The girl, with her curly hair, and straight and too white teeth had always fancied him. As far as I knew, it came from both sides. But neither of them actually ever acknowledged their feelings and they both grew up and went their own way, Alexandre becoming a Third Rank Quidditch player and  
Helène a ministry official. They eventually got together and got married, with three kids. Sometimes childhood love never really fades away.

I nearly fell off the bench when someone slammed his arm around my neck and smoothly sat down next to me, and quasi as an auto reflex I shoved the arm away as quickly as it got there. James awkwardly shifted next to me and ruffled his hair, waving at the girls, who were looking both relieved, though quite crossed while treading to their house's table. The girl that was so welcoming in our dormitory the day before was skipping behind the Ravenclaw girls, occasionally glancing sideways at the guy that sat next to me.

I turned to James, one of my eyebrows arched, and asked him why exactly he'd put his arm around me so abruptly in front of those girls.

It took him a few moments of silence to begin explaining himself briefly: "These girls are going to kill me", he blurted out, sighing despondently.

Silence enveloped our group again, but it only stood a few seconds before the whole table was shaking with laughter, leaving James with a mingled look of surprise and a cheeky smile on his face.

"No, seriously, they keep following me! When I come out of the common room, there they are. They're always following Fred, Dylan, Ashton and me in the corridors. When I have to use the loo, they really follow me to the doors and await my return. It's like they're bloody lap dogs", he exclaimed when the laughter had died away. He kept checking the tables at which the girls were seated, making sure they couldn't catch his eye.

Silence again.

"Anyone up for some Quidditch? I've booked the Quidditch pitch", asked Albus eagerly with a twinkle in his eyes like a child opening his Christmas present.

James partially opened his mouth. He looked quite aghast. He was about to answer but was–surprisingly- cut off by Laura, who had an excited tone in her voice. "You've booked the Quidditch pitch? Can you _actually_ book the Quidditch pitch right now?"

Albus slowly nodded while he got up and started another sentence.

But before he could continue his sentence, Albus was interrupted by a tiny barn owl who glided across the Great Hall and landed neatly on top of my now empty plate. It held out his claw, around which a scroll was tied, impatiently. I gently untied the scroll off its claw and the owl set off noisily.

I told the others that I wasn't coming and made my way back to the common room, to take my time to read the letter. When I finally reached the dormitory, my hands had already unscrolled the letter, which was at least -_Gustin had way too big of a handwriting-_ ten and a half inches long. We had only said goodbye two days earlier, so I was surprised I got mail this early. _I _didn't plan on writing before the next week. So whatever his motive was, it was either that he missed me so much _–couldn't be-_ or he either had something to say that was so important that he couldn't wait another day. Gustin was always very unpredictable.

_Dear Angie, _it said,

_I know by the time you read this, you've probably already made some friends there at Hogwarts and I'm pretty damn sure that you've already had fried chicken and mint humbugs and all those delicious English dishes that your dad always makes. Everyone misses you! Especially Virginie and Rosette! They send their love!  
Your cousin also asked me to send you a slap, for not letting her know that Tom would propose to her in front of the whole family. And hell, that actually hurt, my cheek is still glowing. Oh, and your neighbour says hi! You know, the creepy bald one? Mister Longlais?  
So, those were all the __**hello**__s and the __**hi**__s, I think.  
But now- on to the more serious business. I don't know if you already know, and if you don't, now you will. Eight Magic schools have apparently organised an Interschool Quidditch Cup. And both Hogwarts and Beauxbatons are a part of it! But the dark side of it: we actually have to try out for the team. So it can be that I'm not chosen. Which brings me to a darker side of it. If I'm not chosen, then I won't see you again until the next holidays. And maybe even later. So, as much as I love you... Angie, I think we better break up. For our own good._

_Love, Gustin F._

…

Oh, joy.


	4. Havoc and Try-outs

The rest of the week and the following days passed by in a flash. Normally, the first lessons would be so exciting, but despite my good time table and already formed friendship, not a single happy emotion had been going through my mind. Needless to say, I was a bit cranky and anyone who came near me would have had the possibility of being hexed to oblivion. But I kept strong. Strong enough to keep the tears away until I was back in my bed, safe to let them flow. I knew I was being melodramatic and totally overreacting, but I hadn't seen it coming. And what I didn't expect, made me feel vulnerable.

It had been going on like that until the next Friday, when Laura dragged me out off my bed ten minutes before we had a double potions.

"Why do you wake me up _now_?! And hour ago would've been fine!" I loudly exclaimed while rushing into my uniform, a minute ago just groaning into my pillow.

"Stop complaining and keep on rushing! We need to walk all the way to the dungeons."

"We wouldn't have to _haste _if you'd have woken me up earlier!" I replied irritably, lunging at my shoelaces.

"Oh please, cheer up a bit", she sighed in reply.

"Yeah, that'll help", I snorted as I was disappearing through the door of our dorm. The common room was empty, as everyone was already heading to their classes or were already there. I quickened my pace and heard Laura do the same.

"You seriously need to stop thinking about that stupid git! He doesn't deserve your grief!" started Laura as we climbed out of the portrait hole.

"He's not a-"

"The bloke broke up with you. With a _letter_", she pushed, emphasising the last word. When I wanted to protest, she simply raised her hand. I growled. "Fine."

Merlin, she _was_ right, he was a git. But I just didn't want him to be one. The Gustin that I knew would just wait. But of course, the Gustin that I knew had changed over summer. The sudden change didn't just pop out of him, it was the environment that had slowly taken over his mind. He didn't take my migration to England very well when I told him. Buggers for him. I actually had a great time already.

When we finally arrived, we were about five minutes late. As we silently walked into the classroom, professor Zabini quickly shot a glance at us and then got back to what he was saying. That was the thing with Zabini, he never asked questions. He'd just show some kind of acknowledge when you were late, or he'd glare and send mental daggers at you, in the worst case.

Laura motioned me to the table at the left side of the back of the room, where Albus was sitting, listening intently to Zabini. We sat down at the table and I gently nudged Albus before whispering: "Albus, have we missed anything important?"

"Unless you call another lecture about N.E. important", he shrugged. "And _do_ call me Al", he added, a smile plastered on his face. I returned him a smile and turned my gaze to professor Zabini, who was enumerating the ingredients -wormwood, valerian roots, Sloth brain, the juice of a sopophorous bean, asphodel, moondew and crushed snake fangs- that we were about to use today.

He tapped his wand on the blackboard and the whole recipe appeared in curly letters. "You have exactly one hour to brew the Draught of Living Death," he said curtly, "A flask with your name on it is to be handed in at the end of the hour. The next hour we'll test the potions on inanimate objects."

Making the potion was harder than it seemed. It was almost impossible to _cut_ the sopophorous bean, and everyone's bean kept flying across the classroom. I sighed of relief when I finally got some juice out of it and made sure it landed in my cauldron. With an occasional glance at Al's cauldron and Laura's cauldron, I could see that they were as equally struggling as I was.

"Ten minutes left", said professor Zabini calmly.

"Done", Al muttered.

"Good grief, you must've been in a hurry then. My potion's as ready as Rose and Scorp are to snog in the library", Laura answered, muttering under her breath.

"Yes, and yes. I have a free hour after potions, which I'm thinking about spending to practise for tonight's tryouts."

"That's tonight?"

Al nodded. "Are you coming too?" he asked.

I nodded in response. "You bet I am."

"All right, time's up. Fill your flasks and _don't_ forget to put your name on it.."

* * *

"I can't believe I've still got an Acceptable! I mean, a Poor, yes. My potion was all foggy and _not_ the colour it should've had", rambled Laura. She had been talking about her mark for at least half of dinner. It was pretty obvious that it was getting on everybody's nerves. "Laura, why is it that you're always talking about marks? Relax a bit, if you don't watch out, you'll become like Rosie here", joked Dominique while poking her lettuce.

"What have I suddenly got to do with this?" asked Rose flabbergasted, looking up from the book that lay on her lap.

"Admit it Rose, ranting about marks has always been your division", replied Dominique nonchalantly with a smile, "Oh, don't give me that look."

Rose, who was glaring at Dominique, rolled her eyes and took another bite of her unfinished salad, then silently huffed and returned to her book. Dinner was obviously to be continued in silence.

And then the whole Hufflepuff table broke out in utter havoc. Chaos was created everywhere in the great hall. A puff of scarlet smoke was floating above the Hufflepuff table and apparently it smelled very bad too- so I deduced by looking at a few grimacing people in the vicinity. The staff seemed to be in a discord with themselves, for they were looking around warily. But their state of not knowing what to do was already over very soon. Sprout tried to calm everyone down. Zabini ushered everybody who had already eaten out. Professor Longbottom tried to get control over the situation and find what the cause was.

Rose and Dominique ascended the stairs hurriedly while Laura, Scorpius, Al and I made our way to the Quidditch pitch. We still had plenty of time, so we decided to stay a bit by the lake first. There we found four certain seventh years who looked anything but innocent and were roaring with laughter.

"You guys don't have anything to do with this, do you?" asked Albus ironically. The four of them shook their head frantically –still laughing- and then the round-faced guy, whom I believed to be Dylan Longbottom, added: "We did the most of it, but it was Peeves who set it off."

Al rolled his eyes in response.

It was already getting darker; the lake reflected the bright moonlight and the Giant Squid was bathing in the centre of it. The guys started a game of Exploding Snap to kill time and Laura and I sat down and watched them play like they were eleven.

When it was finally twilight –Wood preferred to hold the try-outs in the dark, it 'showed skill'-, we, minus Dylan, headed off to the dressing room, where two dozen of Quidditch uniforms were waiting.

"With the whole school wanting to be on the team, I don't think we have enough of them", said Al airily, pointing to the said uniforms.

"I second that, bro", chimed in James, with a would-be-brotherly pat on Al's back.

"If you call me 'bro' one more time I'm afraid I might puke."

"Well, if you prefer 'midget', just say so", said James with a tone of finality, to which Albus growled.

Everyone changed in absolute silence. In my first week at Hogwarts, I'd already discovered that silence was an absolute must whenever the Potter brothers ended one of their discussions. Further retorts and arguments weren't very healthy for yourself, as the Potters were known for their very bad temper. Not that I wasn't used to that, you _really_ don't want to feel my mum's anger.

_Really_. I'm not even joking.

My eyes skimmed over the dark purple sleeves of my Quidditch uniform, whilst my right hand glided simultaneously over the soft, yet not too silky fabric.

I soon realised that I'd been staring at it for the past five minutes, when Laura nudged my arm and we all skipped down to the Quidditch pitch. To my utter amazement, there were actually many boys and girls who had turned up for the try-outs. Everyone had gotten assigned a broomstick, as professor Wood, apparently our 'coach', wanted to prevent any form of cheating, like charming brooms beforehand to fly either faster or better.

Laura and I were practically skipping to the broom shed, three meters further from James, who was lazily following. However, catching up with us wasn't hard, apparently, because only a minute later he was walking beside us.

"Keeper, Chaser, Beater or Seeker? Let's hope it's not the latter, because really, you wouldn't stand a chance to me", James arrogantly threw in our conversation.

"Wouldn't we? You know, words are just words, I bet we can kick your arse ten times", I retorted, laughing.

"So... What position do you want to have? Laura obviously wants to try out for Seeker", he asked when we'd arrived at the shed.

"Beater ", I stated with a smile while grabbing my assigned broom. It was a Tinderblast and was indeed very old, but I was happy with it.  
It might've been not that fast but it was decent enough. Come to think of it, I had one of these at home.

Returning to the pitch, Laura rattled on about her Seeker techniques, while James strode past us with a smug look.

We all assembled in the middle of the pitch, waiting for the others as they walked towards us. I halted next to James. He still had that same grin plastered on his face.

"Why are you so full of yourself? I bet Laura can easily overpower you."

James half-chuckled, half-coughed and smiled. "Laura's good," he stated, "but she's just not as good as I am. Really."

I rolled my eyes.

Twat.

I shot a meaningful look at Laura, who subtly nodded. "He's kind of right, though. James's been in the team since his second year and he'd been made captain of the Gryffindor team in our fourth year. I never really had a chance as Seeker", she whispered fast as Wood beckoned the group closer. I started answering but Wood interrupted me.

Despite the big upswing, many of the students were soon out of the race, for loads of them didn't even know how to fly. And that was of course the first skill that Wood had tested. Thus, that only left thirty out of seventy of us, and Wood had angrily exclaimed that he'd rather lose the Quidditch World Cup twice than wasting his time with amateurs. Well, my dad was quite right about him. He was rather... temperamental. Stressing the _mental._

We were divided in even groups. The first group consisted of only chasers and keepers. The two Slytherins that came here with us were a part of it, to give you an example.

I silently sat down with James, Dylan and Laura. Dylan was the odd one out, since he was the only one who wasn't wearing Quidditch attires.

Well, I guess I could had been the odd one too, only black person, only ex-Beauxbatons student, only _-considered-_ French girl...

Gosh, was I really doing that?

Errr, yeah.

A few minutes passed in silence. The four of us were following the happenings above our heads intently. We saw Al soaring through the sky, making another goal as he went.

The first keeper was practically incompetent and had only blocked one Quaffle in his feeble attempts to keep the Quaffle out of the rings. The second keeper did loads better, though was too young to be the Hogwarts keeper -in Wood's eyes, James however had been ranting about how he'd be a great keeper-. So they went on and on, until the first group had finally finished and Wood had chosen a keeper and three chasers: Scorpius Malfoy and Al Potter, both Slytherins, and Fred Weasley and Elisabeth Turpin, students of the Gryffindor house and Hufflepuff house. And then it was finally the keepers' and Beaters' turn. We all assembled in front of Wood.

"Now, all of you want to try out for the position as Seeker and Beaters, and to be honest, you've turned up with quite a lot. I suggest you warm up; just a few rounds around the pitch will be enough."

And so we did.

The Seekers were first. Wood had released one Snitch, and the person that caught it first was to be appointed Seeker. Not very Orthodox. But it worked. For nearly twenty minutes the Seekers circled in rounds, looking determinedly for the Golden Snitch. Within those twenty minutes, people had bumped into each other, blocked each other, and one of the players -I couldn't recognise them from the ground- even attempted the Wronski Feint, but had quickly changed their mind when the others didn't follow.

But the action came when they were about twenty five minutes far. One of the persons in the air had seen the Snitch and was diving frantically after it, while the others followed, eager to catch it first. Some bumped into each other, some tried to slap others, some tried to drag others of their brooms…

And- ouch, that must've hurt.

Where was I? Right. It looked like James had caught the snitch and had earned the title of Seeker again. Everyone landed and Laura came up to me, disgruntled. "I swear, one of these days.. Well, good luck!" she mumbled.

The others and me nervously stood there while Wood explained how we would have to try out. "I know it already is very dark, but succeeding in hitting the bludgers to the other side of the field shows skill when you can't see much." It wasn't what he really said, this is just a short summary of his speech. When we had finally set off and the bludgers flew through the air, the tension was high. We could hardly see a thing, just some shadows. Wood had special glasses on that made him see in the dark –why didn't we?-.

Eventually, my eyes adjusted just in time to see a bludger speeding towards me. I lashed out to it and hit it across the other side of the field, nearly hitting someone else, whose face I couldn't see.

"Sorry", I faintly called out.

It was going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

I landed next to Laura in a not-so-elegant way. "That was bloody tedious", I hissed to no one in particular.

"I still don't know why Wood let you all play hide and seek with bludgers in the dark. You'd say he's lost his mind", chimed in Dylan with a chocolate frog in his mouth.  
"I think he's lost more than that, to be honest. The bloke's crazy", said James pensively. He still had the snitch that he had caught earlier in his hand.

From afar, we heard Wood calling out to us. "If you could all assemble."

It was freezing out there. It was only the second week of September, and even though it was night and supposed to be cold, it still seemed colder than usual. I hugged myself in an attempt to warm up a bit, failing terribly as I did so.

"Do you want me to warm you up?" I heard a whisper in my ear, warm breath covering it. I turned around swiftly, glaring at James. "Do you want me to _puke in your face_?"

He cringed, hopefully getting the picture.

We all stood in front of Wood, who looked at his notes. "So, like I said, our new Seeker'll be James Potter. Welcome back in the team."

James grinned at that.

"Scorpius Malfoy will be joining us as keeper, Albus Potter, Fred Weasley and Elisabeth Turpin are going to score us goals. The players will be defended by our new beaters, Darren Enoble and Angelina Thomas. That is all. You're all dismissed. I don't think my fellow professors will be happy to find you all outside after curfew."

We slowly headed back to the castle, Laura catching up with me. "I really didn't see anything, but well done! Please note that you're going to have to get along with James. He _is_ your teammate, gross as he may be."

"Uhu. Well… still gross."

She rolled her eyes, patting my shoulder as we arrived at the castle.

"So when exactly are the other teams going to arrive?" Albus asked.

"I thought they were arriving next week," Scorpius replied carefully, opening the castle doors.

* * *

**A/N: I am SO SO SO sorry for neglecting you! It's almost exactly 2 months when I updated the last time! I don't have an excuse. Is it good if I have a note from my mum? No? Sorry guys x**


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